Poems for Lainna
by rob mclennan
$4
love is an impossible narrative
there are too many blue cars in this province.
too often beer commercials on television
are the last stop of wisdom. at the hands of the swarm,
came thus but another swarm. a plethora of bees.
if a murder of crows, why not just a pint, then, of poets?
most contemporary horror films
are but scenes of sudden surprise.
emus run wild through the streets of Edmonton.
someone just let them go.
if this is sinful excess, then let it be sinful.
let it be everything it need be then multiplied.
my three fingers that elevator on Whyte
that went nowhere until
we pushed back the button.
this is a true story.
love is a fading photograph
with newer pictures laid overtop.
there are too many blue cars in this province.
cars you can count on the fingers of one hand
coloured peach, lime, orange. the cupboards are bare.
I am caught up with the smooth skin
of an impossible country.
published in Ottawa by above/ground press
in an edition of 200 copies, December 2009
add $1 for postage (outside Canada, add $2 & in American currency)
with cheques payable to rob mclennan, c/o 858 Somerset Street West, main floor
Ottawa Ontario Canada K1R 6R7
2010 subscriptions now available
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa. The author of some twenty trade books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, his most recent titles are the poetry collections Gifts (Talonbooks, 2009), a compact of words (Salmon Publishing, Ireland, 2009), kate street (Moira, Chicago Il, 2009) and wild horses (University of Alberta Press, 2010), as well as a second novel, missing persons (The Mercury Press, 2009). An editor and publisher, he runs above/ground press, Chaudiere Books (with Jennifer Mulligan), seventeen seconds: a journal of poetry & poetics (ottawater.com/seventeenseconds), The Garneau Review (ottawater.com/garneaureview) and the Ottawa poetry pdf annual ottawater (ottawater.com). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and currently divides his time between Ottawa and Toronto. He regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com